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Yingzhi Yang

AcFun, which operates one of China’s popular platforms to share video and animation, has been hit by a cyberattack in which “tens of millions of users’ information” were compromised, the company said on Wednesday.
“The reason for this catastrophe is, fundamentally, because we didn’t make the website secure enough,” AcFun said in a statement.
The 11-year-old company apologised to its users for the security breach, while assuring them evidence of the security breach was collected and that the incident has been reported to the police.
It suggested that users who did not log on to the AcFun site after July 7, 2017, when the company’s login system was updated, to change their passwords.
Cybersecurity threats defy national borders, so countries should collaborate, not clam up
Chinese social media on the same day circulated screenshots taken from an anonymous corner of the internet known as the dark Web, which showed that intranet access to AcFun and bicycle-sharing service Mobike were put up for sale.
Access to AcFun’s intranet was priced at 400,000 yuan (US$62,457), while the cost of Mobike access was not stated. Both deals accepted only cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Later that day, Chinese social media circulated another screenshot from the dark Web of a hacker named “SakuraK”, who claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on AcFun and was selling the firm’s intranet access as “revenge” for ignoring more than 10 emails that he sent to the company. He did not state what those emails were about or when he sent them.

The hacker published the personal data – username, email address and password – of 300 AcFun users on Github, a popular online hosting service for software developers, on Wednesday afternoon.
He threatened to publish the information of 3,000 more AcFun users by June 15 if he received no response from the company. Data from another 10,000 users will be published by June 18 if there was still no response, he said.
A spokeswoman of Beijing-based AcFun said the company was “handling” the matter, but declined further comment. She did not immediately reply to an inquiry on the number of AcFun’s monthly active users.
Chinese will spend more time on their smartphones than watching telly this year 
A Mobike spokeswoman said the bike-sharing company was doing a security check on its website and that it had not found any data leakage.
There was no immediate response to an inquiry about the data breach the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
AcFun’s disclosure of the cyberattack has come more than a week after Kuaishou, the social video-streaming app operator backed by Tencent Holdings, acquired the company for an undisclosed amount.
Under the terms of that deal, AcFun retained separate branding, operations and development.
Its main domestic rival, Nasdaq-listed Bilibili, reported 77.5 million monthly active users during the first quarter of this year.
AcFun had been criticised by its users last year for server instability issues.


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Cybersecurity

Chinese video-sharing site AcFun hit by cyberattack, compromising millions of users’ data

The logo of Chinese video-streaming startup Kuaishou is seen in Beijing, China May 10, 2017. Picture taken May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

A hacker identified as “SakuraK” has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on AcFun. Photo: Alamy

Cybersecurity threats defy national borders, so countries should collaborate, not clam up

A source code on a computer at cybersecurity firm TREND Micro in Taipei, Taiwan, which warned of the threat posed to government offices by the ransomware WannaCry in May 2017. Photo: EPA

Zhao Zhiguo, general director of the Cybersecurity Administration of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, speaks during the China Internet Security Conference in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. Despite China's tight controls on the flow of information on the internet, online fraud and identity theft are posing major challenges to authorities as e-commerce and other online services boom. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

In this Monday, May 15, 2017, file photo, employees watch electronic boards monitoring possible ransomware cyberattacks at the Korea Internet and Security Agency in Seoul, South Korea. There is strong evidence that North Korea allows people involved in hacking or cyber operations the access necessary for a deep engagement in cyberattacks and cybercrime. According to the FBI, the North's bigger hacks include the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers in May, and has been linked to attacks on the Bangladeshi central bank last year and on banks in South Korea going back to 2013. (Yun Dong-jin/Yonhap via AP, File)

(Front L to R) China's President Xi Jinping, Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, (back L to R) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump pose during the "family photo" during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017. World leaders and senior business figures are gathering in the Vietnamese city of Danang this week for the annual 21-member APEC summit. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / JORGE SILVA

Governments and business must work together to patch cybersecurity holes

An “out of service” notice is displayed on the screen of an ATM at a bank infected by the Petya ransomware computer virus in Kiev in late June. The cyberattack, similar to WannaCry, began in Ukraine, infecting computer networks and demanding US$300 in cryptocurrency to unlock their systems before spreading to different parts of the world. Photo: Bloomberg

epa04563764 US President Barack Obama listens to remarks from British Prime Minister David Cameron (not pictured) during their joint news conference in the East Room of the White House, in Washington DC, USA, 16 January 2015. Obama and Cameron met to discuss a wide variety of issues including cyber-security, terrorism and Ebola. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Tencent-backed video app Kuaishou in overseas push amid increased China scrutiny

Kuaishou app ranked No 1 in App Stores in Russia and Belarus in late April and recently became the most downloaded app in a day in South Korea, App Annie Data shows.

The logo of Chinese video-streaming startup Kuaishou is seen in Beijing, China May 10, 2017. Photo: Reuters